Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Write a story involving a conversation that’s packed with subtext; the characters aren’t quite saying what they mean.

Posted in Dialogue on Oct 26, 2022

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 77 stories

The Distance

Submitted to Contest #55

Gordon Malthus returned from his morning constitutional looking extremely flustered. Sweat dripped along his pudgy, defiant face, making small rivulets at the tips of his drooping mustache. Again and again his twitching, mousy hands returned to his misaligned golden spectacles, rearranging them incessantly on his bulbous radish of a nose. Henry watched him from his seat on Malthus' porch, a stopwatch obediently in hand. The time ran across it in rapid numerals, which came to a sudden halt as he stopped the count at his employer's approach...

28 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

It Used To Come In Bricks With Little Orange Worms

Submitted to Contest #55

By the time I was a senior in high school almost all of my friends had experimented with cannabis, but I held out until the night before graduation ceremony. This was not because I was scared, nor was it because I was particularly puritanical for a specific reason. Smoking pot seemed boring to me as a result of watching my parents do it as I grew up. It was always so obvious, too. We would be instructed to go play outside for an hour, and when we returned they relied on us to entertain them and make them laugh. There was never any attempt to...

27 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

16 December 2013

Submitted to Contest #55

Rostine felt like a million dollars this morning. There was a marked bounce in her walk. Her clothes were starting to feel tight, which meant she had stopped looking emaciated. Rohan walked in. “Morning everyone” Rostine was the only one who looked up. Rohan looked sharp as always. She decided to give him 2 minutes to settle in before she went to him with her customer service query. “Hey, sorry to bother you but if we don’t do something about Mark Holdings’ bandwidth, we shall lose them.” “Sometimes a loss is not such a bad thing, e...

25 likes 19 comments 19
Read story

Polite Conversation

Submitted to Contest #55

Sidney was the only one who could see the elephant in the room. All around him, people sipped wine or nibbled hors d’oeuvres, grateful for their first opportunity to mingle in a social gathering (whilst retaining a 2 metres distance from anyone else of course). Conversation ranged from the usual banalities concerning the weather (“So hot ... Marvellous for the strawberries ... Could do with a bit of rain now, though”), family life (“Of course, the kids are completely feral by now after missing so much school – every day, I feel us getting c...

25 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Book Club

Submitted to Contest #55

Emma slowly placed the mini sandwiches on the plate and brought them over to the coffee table. “Why do I have to do this?” She moaned to her mother, pulling her phone out of her pocket.  “Sweetheart it’s a punishment.” Her mother said as she poured chips into a bowl. “I know that..” she rolled her eyes, “But how is joining your neighbourhood book club a punishment.” “Are you having fun?” She asked Emma grabbing her phone and placing it in her purse lying on the counter. “You get this back tomorrow.” “Hey! I guess I’m not having fun....

23 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Garden

Submitted to Contest #55

Pulling weeds in the middle of the night. Not the most common thing in the world, but what else did I have to do? I sighed softly. How many nights had it been now? It was silent tonight. All I could hear was the chirping of crickets and the faint humming of the back porch light I was using to see. Which is why it was easy to hear the cab pull in front of the house. I heard some faint, slurred mumbling. He'd been drinking again. My loneliness quickly turned to rage. I started to rip the weeds up viciously. How therapeutic. I was actually ...

22 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Lessons in Retranca

Submitted to Contest #55

A Play in Search of a Title Or Lessons in Retranca Lavinia is at a play being staged for the first time ever, in the Teatro Valle-Inclán on Rúa do Vilar. She’s with her friend Amanda, who has come to visit for a few days, but doesn’t know anything about Galicia. Amanda has been in Madrid, playing the ‘model tourist’, seeing all the sights possible in two weeks so she could check them off her list. After staying in Santiago briefly, she’ll be off to tour Sevilla and Granada. She’ll probably never notice that right now she’s in a place w...

21 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Two Liars Made For One Another

Submitted to Contest #55

I met Rose Marie at a John Mellencamp Concert in Marlins Park a baseball park located in Miami, Florida. It is the current home of the Miami Marlins, the city's Major League Baseball franchise. It is located on 17 acres. Before she even introduced herself to me she told me that she was a Train Conductor and Yard Master for Amtrak. When I asked what is a Yard Master and is it anything like a Slave Master. She giggled and quickly changed the subject. As we got better acquainted and got drunk off a half gallon bottle of cheap wine that I pulle...

21 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Truth or Dare

Submitted to Contest #55

"Where 'ave you got me roped into now?" Asked Rudey Whitmore. A former private investigator.There was a long line of folk. None of which he recognized leading up to these pearly gates. Beside him was this knockout of a dame with wings of all things glued to her back. Or at least he thought so."Hey miss how can you fly with those things, you look like you weigh at least a ton." Rudey Whitmore didn't mean to insult her or anything."I can fly perfectly fine," Replied the beautiful Angel. She pumped her wings and glided above him then landed lig...

21 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

My Little Ball Of Pride

Submitted to Contest #55

"Good morning. Oh, it's you, vice president." He strutted in. "Morning President Ren." I walked over to his work desk and hoisted myself onto it. I had been cleaning the student council room for a while, so now I'm exhausted. "You're early again. Did you get breakfast?" "Of course, it's Friday - my turn to do morning shifts. And no, I didn’t eat breakfast. But my question is: why are you always here this early in the morning?" President Ren always arrived early in the student council room whenever it was time to clean. The answer is cl...

20 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Extensions

Submitted to Contest #55

“The Librarian” wore a dour expression on her lined face. Her grey eyes glared above the half-moon glasses resting on the bridge of her nose. A blush of pink rose with her ire in her porcelain cheeks. “What do you mean, another extension?” Samuel shifted nervously from one foot to the other, careful to look anywhere but into those piercing eyes. His short stature, thin frame, and smooth, dun skin belied his true age, but fixing his deep brown eyes to her gaze still made him feel like a child. “There’s… extenuating circumstances,” he offered...

18 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Subtext (for lack of a more creative title)

Submitted to Contest #55

“Did you do it?” He sounded agitated. Agitated being the understatement of the century.  “Define it,” I said. I’m not stupid- I had the highest standardized test score in the school once. Granted, that was in third grade and I guessed the majority of the answers, but still. There has to be an underlying point somewhere.  He slapped the metal table with his hands. (Metal table? How weird is that? Who even owns a metal table? Obviously Polk City interrogation, but who else? I might have to complain about that sometime. If I get o...

17 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Living Room

Submitted to Contest #55

“Today’s not a good day,” Mom said guardedly when Meena asked if she could have her friend over to the house. Vidhya, Meena’s older sister, clenched her teeth, knowing that their mother was right. It broke Vidhya’s heart when Meena didn’t catch on right away. “Why?” Meena whined. “I finished my homework!” “I know, honey,” Mom’s voice was tired. “Just...not today, okay?” Vidhya looked at her little sister pointedly, and tried to convey sentences with her eyes. The younger girl remained oblivious, sure that she was being served some injustice....

17 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Happy birthday

Submitted to Contest #55

”Hi buddy. And happy birthday!  Don't worry about the fact that I'm sitting in the grass, this is your day and we can do what we want. It's just the two of us and that is all that matters. I know that it's been a long time since I came to visit you. I know that. And I'm sorry. You see…your mother and I have…we've had some problems and…it was better for her if I stayed away for a while. It shouldn't have affected you and our time together. I feel bad about that. Truth be told; I was scared - even dads get scared sometimes.” ”It is a ...

17 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Fragile, unreal, and wildly protective

Submitted to Contest #55

The cupcakes are burnt, but she eats them anyway.           His arms on the counter a rest for his chin, transfixed gaze spelling out his fascination with her. “You’re like an animal.” He teases. Still, though, opens his mouth, into which she tosses a piece of the cupcake. The melted chocolate leaves a smear on his lower lip.           “It is good.” His brows arched high up in seeming mockery, though he finds the cookie—still emanati...

16 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about a meeting of a secret society.

Mystery – 155 stories

Write a story about an old family secret surfacing generations later.

Adults – 141 stories

Write a story that either starts or ends with someone asking, “Can you keep a secret?”

Kids – 420 stories

Write a story where the readers are in on a secret that the characters are unaware of.

Novel – 101 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel